VI: INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE:

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VI INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE

• Changing Patterns of International Trade in Late
  Medieval Europe, ca. 1280 ca. 1520 Italy, the
  German Hanse, the Dutch, the English, Antwerp,
  South Germans, and the Portuguese (Part I)

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A. General Factors Features

• (1) Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations (1776) chapter
  3 That the division of labour is determined by
  the extent of the market
• - economic specialization and scale economies
  determined by aggregate market demand
• - the keys to productivity gains and growth
• (2) The demand side Exports development of
  regional foreign markets ultimately the world
• (3) The supply side Imports
• - raw materials for industrialization exports
• - foodstuffs to permit urbanization
• (4) Supplying capital for commerce, finance,
  industry

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B. Depression, Warfare, and Transaction Costs in
Foreign Trade

• (1) The Late-Medieval Depression the debate
  about depopulation and real incomes
• (2) Changes in real incomes
• - obviously played a strong role in market demand
• - but so did population aggregate demand
• - continuing strong belief that real wages or
  real incomes rose in later-medieval Europe chief
  argument of those opposing concept of the
  late-medieval Great Depression
• (3) Mathematical formulae for Real Wage changes
• (a) RW MRPL
• (b) RW NWI/CPI nominal money wage index
  divided by the Consumer Price Index (base mean
  1451-75 100)

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B. Depression, Warfare, and Transaction Costs in
Foreign Trade 2

• (4) Real wages in later-medieval Europe RW
  NWI/CPI
• - combination of institutional wage stickiness
  and fluctuations of the price level (CPI), so
  that monetary factors determined real wages
• - fell with inflation,
• - rose with deflation
• (5) Impact of Warfare late-medieval economy
• - very negative, regressive effect on real
  incomes
• - coinage debasements (below)
• - soaring taxes, tolls, tariffs on trade
• - trade embargoes other trade imposition
• - bullionist impediments on monetary flows
• - warfare and piracy disruptions of traditional
  trade routes

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B. Depression, Warfare, and Transaction Costs in
Foreign Trade 3

• (6) Douglass North on late-medieval economy
• The decline of population, coupled with war,
  confiscation, pillage and revolution, reduced the
  volume of trade and stimulated a trend toward
  local self-sufficiency. The losses to society
  due to the decline in specialization and reduced
  division of labor certainly argues against a rise
  in the standard of living.

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B. Depression, Warfare, and Transaction Costs in
Foreign Trade 4

• (7) Coinage Debasements 14th 15th century
• (a) Italy, France, Low Countries, Spain (Castile
  Aragon), and Germany all suffered from radical,
  most extensive debasements
• (b) England exception until Henry VIII (1540s)
  possible reasons
• - wars were not fought on English soil
• - large revenues for wool export taxes lessened
  need for mint seigniorage fees

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B. Depression, Warfare, and Transaction Costs in
Foreign Trade 5

• (8) Warfare and Public Debts (Topic VII)
• - late-medieval warfare ever more costly
  especially with land and naval artillery, guns,
  etc
• - far larger, more heavily fortified ships
• - warfare financed by public borrowing
• - which was financed by vast increases in
  taxation especially consumption taxes (excise
  taxes)
• chiefly alcohol other foodstuffs highly
  regressive
• - Problem of Depopulation increased the per
  capita burden of payments on prior public debt
• England escaped consumption taxes before 1640s

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B. Depression, Warfare, and Transaction Costs in
Foreign Trade 6

• (9) International Warfare from late 13th century
• a)- from late 13th century warfare (not plagues)
  chief factor in disrupting and contracting
  international trade
• b) all the previously mentioned costs of
  warfare, piracy, brigandage
• c) major events up to the Hundred Years War
• - 1275 Muslim Berber invasions of Spain
• - 1282 Wars of Sicilian Vespers in Italy to 1314
• - 1291 Mamluk Egypt conquest of Crusader states
• - 1291- 99 Venetian-Genoese wars over Black Sea
• - 1294 Anglo-French-Flemish wars (to 1328)
  Scotland
• - 1303 Ottoman Turks invasions of Byzantine
  Empire and then the Balkans
• - 1314 Guelf-Ghibelline wars in Italy (to
  1380s)
• - 1337 1453 Hundred Years War England
  France

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The Mamluk Domains

• The Mamluk Sultanate displaced the Ayyubid
  dynasty in 1250, and ruled both Egypt and Syria
  until 1517, when they were conquered by the
  Ottoman Turks.
• Mamluk regiments constituted the backbone of the
  late Ayyubid military. Each sultan and
  high-ranking amir had his private corps, and the
  sultan as-Salih Ayyub (r. 1240-1249) had
  especially relied on this means to maintaining
  power. His mamluks, numbering between 800 and
  1,000 horsemen, were called the Bahris, after the
  Arabic word bahr (???), meaning sea or large
  river, because their barracks were located on the
  island of Rawda in the Nile. They were mostly
  drawn from among the Kipchak Turks who controlled
  the steppes north of the Black Sea

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B. Depression, Warfare, and Transaction Costs in
Foreign Trade 7

• (10) Transaction Costs Douglass North
• (a) all those costs involving in distributing
  goods services from producers ?consumers
• - search and information costs
• - protection costs cost of enforcing contracts
• - transportation and marketing costs
• (b) high fixed cost components subject to very
  considerable scale economies
• so that market contractions disruptions raised
  transaction costs, sometimes exponentially

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B. Depression, Warfare, and Transaction Costs in
Foreign Trade 8

• (11) Shift from Continental Overland to Maritime
  Routes chief consequence of rising costs of
  European warfare
• a) Decline of Champagne Fairs 1290s 1314 had
  served as chief commercial hub between
  north-western Europe and Mediterranean
• b) Italian shift to direct maritime routes to
  England and Flanders
• - from 1320most historians still view this as a
  commercial advance rather than a setback for sea
  transport is cheaper is it not??
• - neglected to view a map the direct overland
  route was only 20 of the distance as the
  maritime routes (from Venice 1400 km vs 7200 km)
• - also neglected to consider rapid rise in sea
  transport costs with increased naval warfare,
  piracy, and thus need for heavily armed ships
  Venetian galleys (1332) safe but very expensive
• - Venetian galleys to North only 35 of years
  from 1332 - 1400.

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B. Depression, Warfare, and Transaction Costs in
Foreign Trade 9

• (c) Advantages of fairs overland routes over
  maritime routes
• - far shorter, indeed safer trips (before 1290s)
• - lost at sea piracy chief dangers by sea
• - no known method to calculate longitude (before
  1764)
• - Champagne other fairs annual cycle of fixed,
  known dates when merchants meet low transaction
  costs
• - maritime routes were uncertain both about
  arrival, and at least the dates of arrival
• - consequence maritime trade canalized long
  distance trade between very few ports north and
  south
• - Fairs involved trade from hundreds of towns

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B. Depression, Warfare, and Transaction Costs in
Foreign Trade 10

• (d) Consequences economic contraction
• -i) Van der Wee thesis shift to maritime trade
• reduced volume aggregate value of European
  trade
• - concentrated international trade in far fewer
  and chiefly maritime cities (led by Italians)
  in fewer, wealthier hands
• ii) Munro thesis on rising transaction costs
• raised the cost-floor for trade in cheaper
  products, thus reorienting trade to far smaller
  volumes of very high priced luxury goods, for
  which transaction costs were a much smaller
  percent of total values
• structural changes favoured price-makers over
  price-takers
• e.g. textiles ? victory of the woollens over
  worsteds

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C. The Italians in Late-Medieval International
Commerce

• (1) Factors in Italian Commercial Supremacy in
  Medieval Europe (from ca. 950 to ca. 1500)
• (a) Papacy support from support of papacy
• - especially as tax collectors and bankers
• (b) extensive urbanization surviving Roman
  Empire so that extensive trade required-
• for importing good raw materials
• for exporting goods services for revenue
• (c) intermediary link between Europe and Asia
• -as source for high valued Asian spices luxury
  goods
• - historic ties with both the Byzantine Empire
  Islamic Worlds
• (d) international structural changes favouring
  luxury goods
• (e) innovations in banking financial
  institutions

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C. The Italians in Late-Medieval International
Commerce 2

• (2) The Papacy, the Levant, and the Italians
• a) 1291 Mamluk conquest of last Crusader states
  (Acre) Papal ban on Muslim trade
• b) Italians (led by Genoa Venice) reoriented
  Asian trade to Black Sea and Lesser Armenia
  (Cilicia) on Mediterranean
• Genoese-Venetian war 1291-99
• Black Sea and Lesser Armenia had direct trade
  links to Mongol Empire
• - Civil wars in Mongol Khanates by 1340s
  disrupted this trade
• - Mamluks conquered the Cilician ports Lajazzo
  1347
• c) 1345 Italians resumed trade with Alexandria
  chief Mamluk Egyptian port on Mediterranean
  Italians forced Papacy to sell trading licences
• d) Problems with renewed Mamluk trade from 1345
• - Karimis merchant cartel in Alexandria
  exploited Italian merchants
• - Exorbitant papal fees to conduct this trade
• - Black Death 1348-50 devastated Mamluk realms
• - Barcelona (Aragon) new rival for Italians in
  the Levant trades

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C. The Italians in Late-Medieval International
Commerce 3

• (3) Venetian Commercial Supremacy the role of
  the Levant
• (a) the folly of Venices rivals Genoa
  Barcelona insisted on piracy and cosair wars
  against Muslim, especially Mamluk, shipping
  coastal towns
• (b) Venice, refusing to participate, built up its
  fleets of heavily armed galleys virtually
  impervious to naval piracy attacks
• (c) cultivated diplomatic relations with the
  Mamluk Sultans
• - 1370 Peace Treaty fruits of victory opened up
  a vast new trade in Syrian cotton (Beirut), as
  well as spices at Alexandria
• (d) War of Chioggia, 1378 1381 continuation of
  1350-55 wars (Genoa)
• Genoa on verge of victory when Venetians
  inflicted a crushing defeat ending Genoese power
  in eastern Mediterranean forever
• (e) by 1390s Venice reaching height of
  prosperity, in over a century
• (f) Barcelona continued to be a threat,
  especially under Alfonso V of Aragon (1416-58)
  but civil wars of 1462-78 debilitated Barcelona
• (g) Genoa continued to decline in both eastern
  western trades

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C. The Italians in Late-Medieval International
Commerce 4

• (4) Venetian Supremacy in the 15th century
• a) Levant Trade chief source of power and
  prosperity Venetian share rose from 40 in 1400
  to 65 in 1450s
• b) The temporary Mamluk threat 1425-38 Sultan
  Barsby imposed monopoly on spice trade
• Venice forced him to withdraw and to destroy the
  karimis cartel
• c) Spice prices fell by 50 remained low,
  enhancing Venetian prosperity to the 1490s
• d) Spice trades 60 of Venetian expenditures in
  the 1490s
• e) Other trades in Syrian cotton and South
  German silver and copper (see the rise of
  Antwerp)
• f) Threats to Venetian Trade from the 1490s
• - Portugal Vasco da Gama reaches Calicut,
  India 1498 (spices)
• - Ottoman Empire wars with Venice conquest of
  Mamluks 1517

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C. The Italians in Late-Medieval International
Commerce 5

• (5) Economics of Italian Trade with Levant
• (a) spices by far the chief imports into Europe,
  by value
• -(i) chief spices pepper, ginger, cinnamon see
  next list
• - but also wide range of medicinal products
• -(ii) necessity or luxury?
• - Spices were not a preservative salt filled
  that role
• - but for the upper classes perhaps a social
  necessity, in same way that luxury textiles were
• iii) that (inelastic) demand made spices most
  lucrative component of late medieval
  international trade

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The Spice Trade Routes to 1500
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C. The Italians in Late-Medieval International
Commerce 6

• (b) Syrian Cotton Trade 2nd most important
• - from 12th century, Lombardy (N Italy) became
  European leader in producing fustian textiles
  (Egyptian origin) from domestic flax (linen
  warps) and Levantine cotton (wefts)
• - from ca. 1300 slow, irredeemable decline
• - 1370s warfare disrupted Lombard trade
  promoted growth of S. German fustians, which
  became their major growth industry
• - South Germans totally dependent on Venice for
  supplying Syrian cotton selling silver in return
• that trade promoted growth of Syrian plantations

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C. The Italians in Late-Medieval International
Commerce 7

• (c) Italian exports of western goods to the
  Levant
• i) Textiles predominant industrial goods from
  Italy, Catalonia, Low Countries, England
• predominance of cheap textiles in 13th century
  gave way to predominance of luxury woollens by
  mid 14th century
• ii) Other industrial goods glasswares, metal
  goods (including arms if illegal), especially
  copper and brasswares, paper, soaps,
• iii) foodstuffs grains, olive oil, salt, fish,
  dried fruits

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C. The Italians in Late-Medieval International
Commerce 8

• (d) Venetian balance of trade with the Levant
• - 1490s according to Eliyahu Ashtor (Israeli)
• - in purchasing spices, cottons, and other Asian
  goods in Alexandria and Beirut, Venetians
  effected payment for one third by sale of
  western goods and two thirds in bullion, chiefly
  silver (but some gold)
• - i.e. Italians Catalans not sell enough
  western goods (in value) to cover costs of their
  Levantine-Asian purchases
• (e) Importance of South German silver mining boom
  from 1460s expanded supplies of silver and
  copper that Venetians used in their Levant trade
  (at least to the 1490s, when silver flows had
  shifted more and more to Antwerp and the Brabant
  Fairs (next day)

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D. Northern Commerce the Baltic, German Hanse,
and the Dutch

• (1) The history of the Dutch (from Holland)
  victory over the vast German Hanseatic League in
  the 15th century a crucial event in early-modern
  history
• - The Baltic zone was, for both, the keystone
  of northern commercial power
• - chief areas of Baltic commerce Scandinavia
  (Norway, Denmark, Sweden), Germany, Poland,
  Lithuania and Courland (Latvia, Estonia), and
  Russia
• a) similarities with Mediterranean trade as the
  northern counterpart to the Mediterranean
• - (i) initial importance of luxury goods
  especially furs, amber
• - but they were never as important as spices and
  silks in the Mediterranean,
• - relative importance waned by late 15th century
  (while relative importance of luxury trades grew
  in the Mediterranean)
• (ii) predominant role of woollen textiles in the
  Baltic trades
• (iii) chronic deficit in western Europes balance
  of payments with the Baltic i.e., western
  purchases of Baltic goods normally exceeded value
  of western sales
• b) key difference much greater, increasing role
  of bulk goods in Baltic trades

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D. Northern Commerce the Baltic, German Hanse,
and the Dutch 2

• (2) The key export commodities of Baltic
  commerce chiefly low-cost bulk goods as raw
  materials and foodstuffs
• a) forest products
• -i) especially lumber and naval spars shipping
• - from eastern Germany (Prussia), Poland,
  Scandinavia
• b) potash potassium carbonate (K2CO3)
• - either mined deposits, or from burnt trees
• - uses textile dying (with woad), fertilizer,
  making glass soap later saltpetre in
  gunpowder
• c) naval stores for shipbuilding flax (canvas
  sails), hemp (rope ship rigging), pitch (calking
  ships) especially from eastern Baltic (Livonia)
• d) metal ores both iron and copper- from Sweden
• c) grains- chiefly rye and barley
• - from Prussia and Poland

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D. Northern Commerce the Baltic, German Hanse,
and the Dutch 3

• (c) Other Foodstuffs
• i) beer from barley later with hops added
• - from Hamburg principally
• - universal drink in northern Europe (as was wine
  in the south)
• because both water milk were so unsafe to drink
• - beer underwent both boiling (mashed malt) and
  fermentation (with yeast hops)
• bacterial transmission of disease discovery of
  Koch, Pasteur
• -estimates of per capita beer consumption in 15th
  century in Hamburg Low Countries
• range from 202 to 313 litres per year

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D. Northern Commerce the Baltic, German Hanse,
and the Dutch 4

• (c) Other Foodstuffs
• ii) herring first from Swedish coasts (Scania),
  and then from the North Sea separate topic
• iii) salt
• -originally mined rock-salt from salt-flats of
  Lüneburg, near and controlled by Lübeck
• - with increasing depletion ca. 1400, Germans
  sought sea-salt from France Bay of Biscay
  (Bourgneuf SW, near Bordeaux)
• - salt the universal preservative for meat, fish
• - especially important in curing herring

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D. Northern Commerce the Baltic, German Hanse,
and the Dutch 5

• d) Herring Fisheries their vital importance
• - abundant, highly nutritious, relatively cheap
  foodstuff with a European-wide demand
• - when other high-protein foods were costly
• - Unger challenged view that it was cheap but
  ca. 1500, Antwerp mason could buy 50 herrings
  with his daily (summer) wage fresh, smoked
  herrings
• - could be easily preserved (cured) by salting
  or pickling, or by smoke-drying
• stored, transported for long distances
• important for its oil lubricants (but banned in
  Flemish textile industries indicating its use!!)
• ca. 1650 Dutch were marketing 200 million
  herring a year, while controlling only half the
  European markets.

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Herrings
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D. Northern Commerce the Baltic, German Hanse,
and the Dutch 5

• (3) Commodities imported into Baltic zone
• a) chiefly textiles from both Low Countries
  (Holland, Brabant, Flanders) England
• b) others spices, wines, metalwares, etc.
• c) Note historical anomaly
• - beer, herring, and salt originally major
  exports became major imports by 15th century
• - part of story lies in rise of Dutch commerce

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D. Northern Commerce the Baltic, German Hanse,
and the Dutch 6

• (4) The Hanseatic League and Lübeck
• a) creation of the League
• 1356 to 1370 from conflicts with both Flanders
  and Denmark
• Treaty of Stralsund 1370 victory over Denmark,
  giving Hanse control over herring fisheries in
  Scania in Danish ruled Sweden
• Lübeck acknowledged leader of the League
• b) Hanseatic League union of four regional town
  leagues
• i) Wendish League, in western Baltic led by
  Lübeck, in alliance with Hamburg (Elbe) and
  Bremen (North Sea)
• ii) Livonian League led by Riga (eastern Baltic
  modern Latvia)
• iii) Prussian League dominated by Danzig and the
  Teutonic Order (in Poland and Prussia)
• iv) Rhenish League Rhineland towns led by
  Cologne (Köln)

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D. Northern Commerce the Baltic, German Hanse,
and the Dutch 7

• c) The Hanseatic Kontors (trade factories)
  following trading settlements were jointly run by
  the League
• (1) Bruges in Flanders most important, by far
• (2) London the Steelyard (Stahlhof)
• (3) Bergen in Norway (Scandinavian trade)
• (4) Novgorod Peterhof for Russian trade
• (5) Visby Swedish island of Gotland (lumber,
  metals)
• d) Hanseatic League only a loose confederation
• - Had a federal Diet or parliament treasury
• - but no central administration
• - no federal navy or organized armed forces
  individual town levies for military services

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D. Northern Commerce the Baltic, German Hanse,
and the Dutch 8

• (e) Lübeck as leader of the Hanseatic League
• - i) based on its dual control over
• - the commerce in both salt and herrings
• - the transit route from the Baltic to North Sea-
  Strecknitz canal (1397) linking Lübeck and
  Hamburg on the Elbe estuary
• ii) external threats to Lübecks dominance
• - rise of Dutch and then English competition from
  1390s
• as both established a direct sea route from the
  North Sea, via Danish Sund, into Baltic
• dual invasion came at the very wrong time just
  when Hanseatic markets were seriously contracting
  Poland was challenging Prussian control over
  north-eastern Slavic Europe
• - hence these threats intensified Hanseatic
  monopolism
• iii) internal threats to Lübecks dominance
  from those towns (Livonian, Prussian, and Rhenish
  Leagues) that welcomed trade with Dutch

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D. Northern Commerce the Baltic, German Hanse,
and the Dutch 9

• (5) The Rise of the Dutch trading towns Holland
  and Zealand
• a) Social factors for economic political
  freedom agrarian factors
• i) virtual absence of feudalism, manorialism,
  serfdom only 12 feudal families
• - 42 of peasants owned own lands, while rest
  were quit-rent free peasants no communal
  farming
• -ii) historical land reclamation and settlement
  by free peasants-
• even with land reclamation, much of Holland was a
  network of islands, peninsulas, inland waterways
  connected only by boats (shipping)
• -iii) livestock foundations of agrarian society
  since reclaimed lands chiefly used for pasture
  for livestock raising (cattle)
• - Jan de Vries argues that livestock based
  agrarian societies better able to resist feudal
  encroachments than arable societies
• - livestock as a medium of exchange (pecunia
  based on pecus)
• - livestock societies depend on other activities
  fed by fishing, trade

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D. Northern Commerce the Baltic, German Hanse,
and the Dutch 10

• a) RISE OF THE DUTCH Social factors for economic
  political freedom agrarian factors
• iv) Highly advanced agriculture as noted in an
  earlier lecture (online reading only)
• - much higher productivity per unit of land and
  manpower
• - liberated labour, land, and resources to be
  more productively employed in urban based
  commerce, fishing, shipping
• - by mid 15th century Holland 45 urbanized, and
  54 urbanized by early 16th century
• - as indicated Holland became more dependent on
  imported grains and fishing to feed its urban
  populations
• - population densities led to land scarcity ?
  high prices ? investment in commerce, industry,
  finance, fishing, rather than landed estates

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D. Northern Commerce the Baltic, German Hanse,
and the Dutch 11

• b) Rise of the Dutch Political Factors
• i) Holland Zealand counties of the Germanic
  Habsburg Empire (Holy Roman) but no such
  imperial authority was imposed on them
• ii) local counts were generally weak
• iii) Dutch civil war of the 1420s
• after last count (William of Bavaria) had died
  without a male heir disputed succession,
• claimed by his daughter Countess Jacqueline of
  Bavaria, who married English duke (Gloucester),
  who invaded Holland with English army
• civil war Kabiljauws (Cods supported town
  rule) vs. Hoeks (who supported Jacqueline and a
  small aristocracy)
• - Philip the Good duke of Burgundy Count of
  Flanders intervened to support the towns
  (Kabiljauws) with military force, in return for
  recognizing him as the new (titular) count
• - Victory of Philip and Kabiljauws Treaty of
  Delft (1428) allowed the towns (Estates) to gain
  effective governance over these two counties

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D. Northern Commerce the Baltic, German Hanse,
and the Dutch 12

• c) Rise of the Dutch geographic factors
• i) Low Countries lay on estuaries of three major
  rivers the Scheldt (Escaut), the Maas (Meuse),
  and the Rhine (Rijn)
• - provided access to France, Germany, Central
  Europe
• ii) Low Countries (with Holland) also lay on the
  North Sea as highway from Baltic to England and
  all western Europe (France, Spain, Portugal)
• - That geography in part allowed the Low
  Countries to dominate the commerce of northern
  Europe from the 12th to late 18th centuries from
  Bruges ? Antwerp ? Amsterdam

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D. Northern Commerce the Baltic, German Hanse,
and the Dutch 13

• (6) Dutch Mastery over the Herring Trades
• a) Dutch (as subsidiary or associate members of
  the Hanse) had long participated in the Baltic
  herring fisheries, while also engaging in local
  herring fisheries in North Sea
• b) Technological advances in herring fisheries in
  the Low Countries (Flanders Holland)
• i) The Buis (buizen) or bus
• new, cheaply built, flat-bottomed fishing and
  cargo board, three sails about 140 tonnes -
  designed for deep-sea fishing for a week or more
• -ii) More advanced herring nets strung between
  several buizen
• iii) Innovations in salt-curing for large scale
  herring catches on board
• rapid, large-scale, on-board gutting, salting,
  when fish were at their freshest (rather than
  onshore) by early 15th century (Flemish?)
• - accidental quality improvement stomach
  appendices (pyloric caecae) left inside the fish
  its trypsin (chemical) sped up curing process
  freshness

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D. Northern Commerce the Baltic, German Hanse,
and the Dutch 14

• (6) Dutch Mastery over the Herring Trades
• (c) Shift of herring spawning grounds from the
  Baltic (Scania) to the North Sea
• i) In 1420s 1 430s the herring spawning
  grounds in Scania virtually disappeared
• - most of the herring were now spawning in the
  North Sea, between England and Holland (in fact
  closer to English shores).
• ii) Theories to explain this shift
• (1) traditional theory that Baltic became less
  saline (salty) because of melting glaciers
• argument based on the fact that herring feed on
  plankton, which requires certain minimum levels
  of salinity
• but absolutely no evidence for this how could
  that happen so quickly?
• (2) better theory rapid depletion of the
  Scania herring grounds by Hanse overfishing in
  response to rising Flemish-Dutch competition

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D. Northern Commerce the Baltic, German Hanse,
and the Dutch 15

• (d) Dutch mastery of Atlantic salt trade
• - as noted, depletion of Lüneburg salt mines led
  Hanse to seek sea-salt in Bay of Biscay
• - Bay of Biscay (France) much closer to Holland
  than to Lübeck Dutch transport advantage
• (e) Dutch advantages in herring trades over the
  Germans
• - lower cost superior technologies
• quality advantages from trypsin in on board
  curing
• - much lower transport costs for salt herrings
• - North Sea herring greater salinity ? more
  plankton ? larger and fatter herrings

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• (f) Consequences of Dutch victory over the Hanse
  in the herring fisheries trades
• i) major spur to shipbuilding ? increased demand
  for Baltic timber ? increased Dutch trade in the
  Baltic
• ii) marketing millions of herrings ? major spur
  to Dutch commercial expansion
• iii) 17th century statistics Dutch herring
  trades
• - employed 20 of Dutch adult population
• - fleets of over 500 buizen produced over 200
  million herring annually
• - value of herring exports exceeded value of
  English woollen cloth exports ca. 1640

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• (7) Dutch Commercial Expansion into Baltic from
  the 1390s
• a) Both the English and the Dutch began a
  direct-sea route invasion of the Baltic in the
  later 14th century through the Skaggerak,
  Kattegat, and Danish Sund (Sound)
• - The English were first from the 1370s to
  Danzig Prussian towns
• - The Dutch followed them only in the 1390s, with
  a far smaller presence
• b) The Dutch had begun doing so as, in effect,
  subcontractors and commercial agents of the Hanse
  (Wendish League)
• - from Hamburg, the Dutch had long handled
  trans-shipping from the Baltic (via Lübeck) to
  the Low Countries and northern France
• - because they were better able to navigate
  inland waterways through Holland-Zealand
• c) Initial Dutch imports into the Baltic (what
  the Hanse had previously exported) herrings,
  salt, and beer but also woollen textiles, wines
• d) Dutch return cargoes exports from the Baltic
  lumber and naval stores above all, but also
  grains (rye, barley), and other Baltic goods .

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• (8) The Wendish Hanseatic Reaction to this
  invasion
• a) This dual invasion of the Baltic came, as
  noted earlier, at the worst possible time for the
  Wendish League (Lübeck) when their markets were
  seriously contracting
• b) the Wendish Hanses reaction was to be
  expected hostile opposition and determination
  to monopolize their trades
• c) The Wendish towns made a crucial error they
  focused on the English threat ignored the Dutch
  until it was too late!
• d) The English appeared to be the greater danger,
  because
• - Major military (especially naval) power that
  had almost conquered France (Battle of Agincourt
  1415)
• - They were becoming the major, most important
  lower-cost producer of quality woollens with
  surging exports
• - The Hanse naively thought that the Dutch were
  allies weak

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• (9) The Hanseatic Victory over the English in
  15th century
• a) English Baltic trade had in fact reached its
  peak with the Prussian Treaty of 1407 never in
  fact implemented, since Prussians refused
  reciprocal rights (to be seen next day)
• b) 1437 Englands Vorrath Treaty with entire
  League was also never ratified because the
  English stupidly began corsair attacks against
  the Wendish Bay Fleets (salt) thus combining
  Prussian and Wendish opposition to England
• c) 1474 Treaty of Utrecht (Netherlands) an
  English humiliation
• -confirmed all Hanseatic privileges in England
  (superior to those of any other aliens) while
  denying any reciprocal rights to England in the
  Baltic great disaster for English trade
• - meant the virtual exclusion of English
  shipping from the Baltic for over a century
  until the 1570s (under Elizabeth I)
• - English also lost their commercial privileges
  in Iceland, Scandinavia

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• (10) The Dutch Victory over the Hanse
• a) The Dutch towns struck in the 1420s in
  alliance with the Danes, fought several
  successful naval/corsairs wars against the
  Wendish Towns
• b) 1441 Treaty of Copenhagen sponsored by
  Denmark
• -The Wendish Hanse, still fixated on their
  English foe, decided on a separate peace with the
  Dutch towns (Holland Zealand)
• - But the Wendish towns fully intended to crush
  the Dutch later
• - Treaty award Dutch towns full freedom of trade
  in the entire Hanseatic trading zones
• c) Problem Hanseatic dissension (and greed?)
• - in eastern Baltic, the Prussian Livonian
  towns, having once been hostile to the English,
  came to welcome Dutch trade
• - the Dutch offered much better terms than did
  the Wendish towns
• - Prussian Livonian Leagues refused to support
  Lübecks Wendish towns
• d) 1536 Treaty of Speyer, by which Lübeck
  finally recognized defeat

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• (11) Consequences of the Dutch Victory
  commercial supremacy
• a) Graph misleading - neglecting Lübecks
  frequent exemptions
• i) Danzig port records 1475-78 Lübeck
  accounted for 49 of grain trade vs. 39 share
  for the Dutch
• ii) Danzig port records 1550-55 Lübecks share
  of grain trade had fallen to 18 Dutch share
  had risen to 53
• b) Long term consequences are clear
• -the Dutch gained commercial dominance in the
  vital Baltic trades
• - from which the English were totally excluded
• - when English returned in 1570s outnumbered
  131 by the Dutch
• c) 16th 17th centuries Baltic became most
  crucial zone for the European economy
• -for grain, lumber, metals relatively scarce
  European supplies
• when Europes population had more than doubled
  (2nd term)